


We Didn't Start the Fire

by redcursive



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grian and Wilbur are half-brothers, Hurt/Comfort, Techno's ADHD, Watcher!Dream, Watcher!Grian, Watcher!TommyInnit, Watcher!Tubbo, Watchers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26805838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcursive/pseuds/redcursive
Summary: Tubbo is missing, and only Tommy knows where he is-- and Tommy's not saying anything. Why? And where has Tubbo gone? The answer in one word:Watchers.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Dave | Technoblade, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 91
Kudos: 741





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MikaOtter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikaOtter/gifts).



“Tommy? Tommy, please, we need you to answer us,” Bad said softly. He was the only one at the moment who could handle talking to Tommy without yelling. “Where is Tubbo?”

Tommy shook his head. Dream slammed his hands on the table.

“Damn it Tommy, say something! We have no clue where the fuck Tubbo is or if he’s okay, and you just won’t say anything?!”

A bee buzzed outside the window of the community house. Lips quivering in their tough-set firm line, Tommy watched the bee in lieu of an answer. He didn’t want to look at Bad’s disappointed face, the tense set of Wilbur’s shoulders, the little smiling mask concealing Dream’s no doubt furious face. They might hate him for saying nothing, but they’d definitely hate him if he told them: it was Tommy’s fault that Tubbo was gone.

_ “Yesss…” the giant void-person had hissed with pleasure, “the Tommy human would do well as a Watcher… perhaps thhhis Tttubbo human as we-ll.” _

_ “What the hell do you want from us, bitch?” Tommy demanded. How did it know their names? _

_ The void-person laughed, a raspy choking sound like a dozen dying stars. “Your lives.” _

Dream was spitting mad. “What if he fucking dies, Tommy?! If you know something and don’t tell us and he dies--”

“Dream.” Bad said. His facial expressions didn’t quite translate to a human’s, but the harsh tone of his voice took the wind out of Dream’s sails like a punch to the gut. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, refusing to apologize.

_ “It wants us both,” Tubbo said, shaking like a leaf so badly Tommy could see it despite the fact that they were both running for their lives. “Go. I’ll stay behind.” _

_ “What?!” Tommy demanded. “No, I’m not leaving you with that-- that thing!” _

_ The void-person raked a sharp, nebulous hand across the ground behind them, and Tubbo stumbled. “Go!” _

_ Eyes stinging, Tommy knew what he had to do. _

“He’s not even paying attention!” Dream roared furiously, gesturing at Tommy, who was still seeing the recent past with dull blue eyes. The bee he’d been watching flew too low, dipping into the water. He couldn’t hear it, but he could see it was in pain. Was it worth it to go outside and save it?

Wilbur stepped into the fray. “I’ll take him home,” he quietly volunteered. “We can talk about it again later.”

Without giving Dream a chance to protest, Wilbur ferried Tommy out the door. The dying light of sunset caused the two to squint and avert their eyes, and Tommy noticed a dead bee floating in the water.

It didn’t matter.

_ It didn’t. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy yall its yaboi, red. as usual if you wanna see content that i don't post here or you just wanna scream your ideas and/or feelings at me and have me scream back, check out my tumblr redorich.tumblr.com :) anyway i already have a good 70-85% of this written tbh so the speed at which i update is pretty much dependent on the feedback i get. so if yall like this lmk. and i guess if yall don't like this, also lmk lol.  
> ((fyi the rest of the chapters will be longer than this, i promise))


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into the Watcher side of things.

“I’m sorry, Tubbo,” Tommy whispered. The infinite stars of the void farlands glinted in his eyes, and if they were wetter than usual? It didn’t matter.

“Why would you be sorry?”

“I-- you… you stayed behind just so I could run away, and then the stupid Watcher got me anyway.” He fisted his hands in his hair. “You potentially gave away your  _ life, _ just for two shitty weeks of my freedom before they got me too.”

Tubbo kicked an endstone pebble. It tumbled down a short hill and into the void. “It’s not your fault.”

Tommy stood up off the ground angrily. “Yes, it is! If I had just--”

“Tommy,” Tubbo whispered fervently, looking around. “It’s already mad at you, don’t yell.”

“You know every time you say that, I’m just going to build more bedrock dicks around its towers.”

_ “No,”  _ came a voice like a rusty swingset.  _ “Yyyou will no-t.” _

To the boys’ horror, the Watcher seeped into existence in front of them, forming a tight grasp around the more outspoken of the two.

_ “Your drive for chaosss would make Xelqua pro-ud,” _ it said,  _ “but you are obnoxxxious.” _

“Don’t kill him!” Tubbo gasped.

_ “Ifff… you behave.” _

Blond hair caught in Tommy’s eyes when he shook his head frantically (he couldn’t move anything else). He said, “Don’t do this, Tubbo, don’t listen to it!”

Tears fell like rain down Tubbo’s face. He could barely hear anything over the buzzing in his ears. “I’ll be good.”

Tommy screamed, and no one listened.

* * *

Everyone told Wilbur that he didn’t have to do this. That he shouldn’t, even. It didn’t matter to him. If he had just tried harder to be there for Tommy, who had been so withdrawn in the weeks before his disappearance..! If nothing else, he failed to protect Tommy from whatever it was that happened to Tubbo. So, here he was, once again making the trek to Tommy’s house. Every few days, Wilbur took it upon himself to dust the place, tend any crops, feed animals-- he had yet to summon the nerve to organize Tommy’s things. It just didn’t feel right, moving them from where the kid had left them.

Wilbur paused at the threshold, as he always did. Controlling his breathing, he opened the door and immediately dropped his book.

On the musty bed whose sheets Wilbur hadn’t managed to make himself change, Tommy was sat. The boy stared at the wall.

Wilbur’s heart beat like a jackhammer. “Where the fuck have you been?!”

Tommy didn’t move to greet him, but his head turned. “Wilbur?”

For once, Wilbur found himself lost for words. So many questions, demands, emotions, whirled through his head, upending everything in their path.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Tommy asked.

A slight lurch forward on Wilbur’s part was all the warning Tommy got before being roughly tangled in the man’s embrace. Tommy’s face twitched in consternation. Was Wilbur supposed to be this fragile? 

Something damp brushed Tommy’s shoulder. “Are you… crying?”

“No,” Wilbur rasped. “I missed you.”

“I don’t understand.”

Now it was Wilbur’s turn to feel unsettled. Tommy was acting way too docile.

“Tommy, where have you been? Who took you?”

“I don’t understand.”

Frustrated, Wilbur let go of the death grip of a hug he held Tommy in; he grabbed the young man by the shoulders instead.

“What do you  _ mean _ you don’t understand?! You’ve been gone for  _ five months _ Tommy, surely you have something to say?”

“Five… months?”

Wilbur frowned, inspecting the other. “Tommy, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

If the boy heard him, he didn’t acknowledge it. “I’ve been gone for five months?”

“Yes…” Wilbur said slowly. Something was very wrong here.

Tommy tilted his head a bit, looking up at Wilbur as though seeking an answer. “Where was I?”

For a second, Wilbur was stunned. “How the hell am I supposed to know? You just disappeared, gone! Two weeks after Tubbo disappeared, and you wouldn’t tell anyone what happened, you just  _ vanished _ .”

“I don’t understand.”

Wilbur was near the end of his patience. “Yes, I bloody well understand that you don’t understand--”

“Who is Tubbo?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooooooly shit okay yall wanted this one to be updated. yall must really want me to Hurt The Children, huh? well i am happy to oblige. >:) oh and before i forget, here's my compulsory plug: redorich.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy has a nice day. If only Tubbo were there. :)

The wind in the End was never kind, and the same could be said of its farlands. There was never a breeze; the air was either stagnant enough to smother a human or frenetic enough to sting as it whipped across skin.

Massive towers like a blight stood on the End island in defiance of the howling wind. Some were pure obsidian, some ugly bedrock structures, and some were so palatial that Tubbo could almost pretend they had been built by humans.

_ “Dddo you know how Wa-tcherrrs get their power, Tubbo?” _

He didn't dare turn to look at the gargantuan entity behind him. Picking at the sleeves of his green shirt, he answered, “No.”

_ “We eat other Watchersss,”  _ came the void-person’s bone chilling rattle. Tubbo stiffened. It didn't matter, not when there was nowhere for him to run.

His captor reached around him, limbs like fog. It held a vaguely spherical glowing  _ thing _ , arcing with pseudo-electricity. Tubbo recognized it, and his stomach dropped.

“Is that-- Tommy’s memories?” he said weakly.

_ “We eat other Watchersss,”  _ his captor repeated, rattling with sick glee.

Tubbo felt the color drain from his face. “No.”

_ “You w-ill… consume his memmmories, and become strong.” _

The Watcher brought the sphere closer, but Tubbo pushed it away. It made his fingertips tingle unpleasantly. “I'm not going to eat my  _ friend _ , you sick freak!”

The sphere came close again, scraping his cheek.  _ “You sssaid you would be good,” _ the Watcher rumbled.

“I won't do it,” Tubbo protested, trying and failing to attack the viscous void-person. “I won't! You can't make me!”

Looming over him, the void-person made a noise like old knives scraping metal.

_ “You will.” _

The sphere was shoved into his face. Eye-searing pain like fire and frost and the bite of every sword he'd ever held tore through his mind. He hadn't even known minds could  _ hurt.  _ All he could think was everything he could think, 

Oh God.

_ I’ll kill this bitch-- I’ll behave. _

_ Vive L’Manberg!-- We trusted you, Eret! _

_ Ha, that’s a Tubbo moment-- Big Law? _

_ A bee goes buzzing by… _

* * *

The day was lovely. The sky was clear, the sun warm but not uncomfortably so, and beyond the grassy clearing Tommy was sat in, a wall of sturdy oak trees created a sense of enclosure. He lounged on a picnic blanket with Wilbur, attempting and failing to make flower crowns from clover flowers. Ever since Wilbur had found Tommy in his unused house, staring with eyes so dead Wilbur couldn't help but think… Well, it didn't matter what he thought. The whole server was glad to have Tommy back, and they took turns keeping him company, but none so much as Wilbur. On a deeper level, he couldn't help but feel as though it was his fault Tommy had been abducted in the first place. He knew he was trying to make up for Tommy’s disappearance and somehow absolve his own self-imposed guilt by being available for the young man whenever possible, but it seemed to be working, so. Something about broken clocks being twice right, and all that.

Wilbur tuned out the sounds of good-natured fighting-- an open clearing was as good a place as any for sparring, Dream and Sapnap had decided, and then Techno had come along and bragged about being able to do crits now which of course put a stop to everyone's plans for the day in favor of more sparring.

A  _ shing _ of metal echoed through the clearing, accentuated by the sound of Sapnap’s sword embedding itself in the ground two feet away from the picnic blanket.

“Hey, watch it!” Wilbur yelped. Tommy idly sprinkled a handful of clover and grass on the blade.

“Yeah, Sapnap, watch it,” said Dream, who had been the one to disarm Sapnap in the first place.

Sapnap was at a loss for words. “Wh--  _ you-- _ ” he stammered angrily.

Techno drawled, “Ladies, you're both beautiful.”

Sapnap and Dream looked at each other, nodded, then in unison attacked Techno.

Amid the shrieks of three man-children, Wilbur returned to his book. Thankfully, he wasn't actually trying to read it, else the noise would have made it near impossible. The book was more of a shield, really. To cover his tired eyes, to hide his rumination. The last thing he wanted was for Tommy of all people to worry about him.

"Quit fucking tickling me!" Dream demanded. Wilbur looked up. Techno was holding Dream down, looking for all the world as though he'd rather be sleeping, and Sapnap sat on top of Dream, fingers flying evilly.

"Admit it, you lose!" Sapnap said triumphantly.

"Hell no! Suck a--  _ ahahaha, okay! _ Jesus, you win, I'll be good, let me up!"

"How do I know you won't attack us when I let you up?" Techno asked.

Wilbur heard a strange noise, and looked for the source. Next to him, Tommy was letting out a quiet, strangled whine. The crappy flower crown he'd been making for the past twenty minutes was falling apart, a bloom crushed in his white-knuckled fist.

"Tommy?" Wilbur asked warily.

"I said I'd be good, stop it!" Dream yelled, kicking out at Sapnap. Tommy trembled.

Wilbur snapped, "Guys, shut up!"

Any protests died on their lips when they heard Tommy murmur, "Tubbo..."

The men were around Tommy in a heartbeat, giving him space to breathe, but watching attentively.

"Yes?" Dream asked, "do you remember something?"

“It was going to kill me. It-- Tubbo-- He…” He drew in a shuddering breath. “He said he'd do what it wanted if it let me go. I couldn't move, I kept telling him not to, I-- It still has him!”

“What has Tubbo?” Techno asked.

“Big. Fog. Void-thing,” Tommy gasped. Wilbur placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder to ground him, but Tommy shivered so violently that Wilbur's hand fell off his shoulder.

“Breathe, Tommy,” Sapnap said. Tommy ignored him, or perhaps didn't hear him at all.

_ “I can't remember.”  _ Looking up at Wilbur, Tommy rasped, “It hurts so much, Wilbur. Why does it hurt? Why can't I remember?”

Sapnap and Techno were confused and worried for the poor boy. Dream backed away fearfully, and Wilbur felt his heart catch in his throat. Tommy was crying. Blinking moisture from his eyes, he said, “What is a Watcher?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i said viscous and not vicious that was intentional


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wilbur receives some shocking news, and calls in the cavalry.

Wilbur pulled his phone from his front pocket. The other three men present in the clearing were taking care of the traumatized young man as best they could, and though Wilbur felt it was remiss of him to not join them, he knew this call was more important.

“Hello?” Grian picked up the phone.

“Hi, Grian…” Wilbur didn't know where to begin. He and Grian hadn't known each other for most of their lives, and when they found out they were half-brothers… They were glad to have found each other, but Wilbur didn't want to live in the shadow of his older brother. Thus, their relation was kept a secret, though both were quick to emphasize that they were most certainly not ashamed of the other. It was easier, that way. Almost like being an only child again.

“Wil, are you alright?” The frown in Grian's voice was evident even through the distortion of a long-distance call.

“We found out what happened to Tommy and Tubbo.”

“That's great, then!” Grian said. “But you don't sound happy about it.”

Wilbur looked over his shoulder as though someone were spying on him. He fervently whispered, “It was a Watcher.”

The line crackled with static. “I see,” said Grian stonily.

“Please, I need your help,” Wilbur begged. “I know you left that behind you, but you're the only person I know who can help.”

“For a child, Wil, you don't even have to ask.”

Before Wilbur could so much as thank his brother, Grian hung up. Wilbur couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing-- he didn’t know what to say anyway. He watched as an exhausted Tommy leaned into the side of a very stiff, awkward-looking Techno. Dream and Sapnap had taken to playing some sort of violent pattycake game in an attempt to lighten the mood.

_ I hope you know what you're doing, Grian. _

* * *

Techno squinted at the sunset. The group from the clearing had moved to spawn, to better accommodate whatever drama was going on. Techno wasn’t entirely sure, to be honest, but both Dream and Wilbur were hiding something-- that much he was sure of. Whatever. They were both morons, so he’d find out eventually whatever the hell it was they were trying to keep secret.

Hm. Something about the sunset was off. The longer he spent analysing it (because, like all intelligent individuals, Techno’s hobbies included staring at the sun) the more apparent it became.

“Dream,” he said, “is it supposed to rain soon?”

“No, why?”

“‘Cause there’s a giant miasma of death and despair on the horizon,” Techno deadpanned. “Actually, it seems to be approaching rapidly. Yay.”

Dream blanched-- not that Techno could see it, of course. At least, not on his face, covered as it was. It was in the defensive raising of his shoulders, the half-step back he took, the minute fumbling for a weapon he didn’t have. While the black cloud of unrestrained summer fun drew closer, Dream seemed to be debating with himself internally.

“Techno,” he finally said, “protect my body.”

With that, Dream promptly passed the fuck out, leaving Techno to catch his body. Right as the Watcher (he presumed) made it to spawn, another Watcher materialized with enough force to create a minor earthquake. 

Looking up at the second Watcher directly above him, then down at Dream’s unconscious body in his arms, Techno muttered to himself. “What is it the guy says on Danny Phantom? He’s going ghost?”

Dream-Watcher shrieked at not-Dream-Watcher. The other watcher shrieked back, and Wilbur's return went almost unnoticed. He was panting, hands on knees. He was too far away to tell for sure, but Techno was near certain that Wilbur had sprinted all the way from wherever it was he'd been. Who in their right mind would sprint  _ toward  _ a Watcher without a reason-- ah.

“Grian, no!” Wilbur shouted. Ah, so the not-Dream-Watcher was Grian. Good to know. Techno hadn’t seen the guy since the last MCC.

_ “Mine,”  _ Dream-Watcher hissed.

**_“Mine,”_ ** Grian-Watcher replied, pointing a weird shadow-tentacle-thing at Wilbur. Techno's eyes narrowed. Where had he seen that before..?

Dream-Watcher lashed out with a pointy appendage. The sheer force of it tore entire branches from nearby trees. Quackity was running around like a chicken missing its head, Nikki was clutching to the side of a hill for dear life, Wilbur was Panicking, et cetera. Grian-Watcher was gearing up to do some sort of attack which would obviously be noisy and cause lots of property damage. It was at this point Techno realized,  _ hey, I’m the only one who’s figured out that these dumbasses are OUR dumbasses.  _ He stood up to clarify the situation, ready to shout over the noise that these Watchers were known allies and friends, when he remembered with a gasp exactly where he had seen Grian-Watcher’s shadow-tentacle-thing.   
“Hentai!” he shouted.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, staring at Techno.

“N-now that I’ve got your attention,” he continued, hoping his red cheeks didn’t betray the fact that he hadn’t meant to say that, “the Watcher guy to the west is Dream, and the Watcher guy to the east is Grian. If you could please  _ not _ destroy the server fighting the guy who is  _ on your side _ , I think we’d all appreciate it.”

Right before their very eyes, everyone watched in disbelief as the bigger Watcher shrank, coalescing into the friendly builder they all recognized. It was impossible to tell Dream-Watcher’s expression, being a gigantic cloud made of void, but Techno imagined that the weird chuffing noise Dream-Watcher made was indicative of some sort of moue of distaste. His entire semi-corporeal mass flew straight at Techno at mach speed, so Techno dumped Dream’s body on the ground like a sack of potatoes (except no, Techno treated his potatoes far nicer than that.)

Dream groaned, sitting up. “Did you seriously just yeet my body into the dirt?!”

“Did you seriously just yeet your body into my arms?”

Grian walked over, intercepting Dream and offering him a hand up off the ground. Warily, Dream took it. 

“If you’re here to help us,” Dream said, “why the fuck did you show up as a Watcher?”

Grian suddenly found his shoes very interesting. The tips of his ears were red. “Well… it’s faster, for one. Jumping from Hermitcraft to the MCC as a human is difficult enough, I don’t even want to think about how long it would have taken to get here. As a Watcher, I can jump straight to my territory, fly through some void, and make it here through some bedrock. I took off as soon as I got Wilbur’s call--” Grian gasped. “Oh no, did I leave Mumbo’s iron farm on?!”

“...Right,” said Techno, who understood some of those words. “Anyway, how are we going to get Tubbo back? That’s the important part.”

“Can you fix Tommy?” Dream demanded.

Grian took a step back. “I'll see what I can do for Tommy. If it's what I think it is, we'll need Tubbo along. Which brings me to my next point…”

“We're attacking an unknown Watcher in its own territory, aren't we?” Techno asked.

Grian smiled humorlessly. It had too many teeth. “Why yes,” he said. “Yes we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we close 2 the endgame boiiiis. can yall pretend i said something clever here, its really late rn
> 
> yknow normally i try to write with sentence structure in mind, varying syntax and vernacular to fit the pov character or mood. when i wrote techno, i just tapped into my latent superpower of adhd and this happened. sorry(?)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing this was like pulling teeth, omfg. but i did it so now i won't feel guilty about writing fics for whatever the FUCK happened on the 16th. mr blade sir i am simping respectfully. also dadza pog?

Riding a Watcher, all juvenile jokes aside, was surprisingly nowhere near as bad as they’d thought it would be. What was unsettling about it was the fact that Dream of all people was lagging behind Grian. Despite the lack of physical features, Dream seemed to be uncoordinated outside of his human body. The worst part of it was a toss-up between the gnawing uncertainty of what they were about to face, and the knowledge that one wrong move on anyone’s part could potentially drop them into the void. Respawn wasn’t a guarantee, here.

In the normal End, the void had stars. Distant specks of blue and green. Here, it was… different. The stars were still there, but instead of singular points speckled across the yawning void, the colors were smears painted across an unforgiving black canvas. In the distance, an End island rapidly approached. The barren land was the only point of reference any of the humans could see.

Grian swooped down upon a plateau, elegantly circling the ground and landing with barely a sound. While Grian swiftly deposited Wilbur, Tommy, and Techno on solid ground within a safe distance from any edge, Dream caught up, landing roughly and jarring the entire island.

“Watch it!” George complained. Sapnap elbowed him. Now was not the time to heckle Dream.

Grian snapped his fingers, getting everyone’s attention. “We all have our crossbows, fire charges, and ender pearls, right?” After a moment of assent from the group, he continued. “Stay in pairs, and stay  _ far _ away from the main island. You’ll know it when you see it, it’ll have large structures built out of obsidian and/or bedrock. Most of them will be classical builds, with traps around every corner, but some of them will look like the dragon’s towers. Don’t get too close. Think of it like-- like a bedwars game. Bridge as close to the main island as you dare, but above all defend your own base.”

Techno flicked an eyebrow in exasperation momentarily. Here he was, stacked with all his good gear, being told to defend the bed.  _ In this case, the bed is literally Tubbo’s life, _ he reminded himself.  _ Don’t get cocky. _

“What about me?” Dream asked nervously. It was hard to tell-- hard to even see him, really, blending into the void as his Watcher form did-- but he was scared.

“What about you?” Grian asked, not unkindly.

“Would it be better for me to stay like this, or go back to being human?”

It was surreal, witnessing Dream take his cues from Grian. Sapnap didn’t like it. 

“Wouldn’t it be better for him to stay a Watcher?” Sapnap asked. “Those guys are super powerful compared to a human.”

Techno nodded. “They do seem to be able to soak more damage.”

“I dunno, it just--” Dream cut himself off. “I’m not good at this whole thing, not like I am as a human. I’d get in the way of the  _ real  _ Watchers, or get myself killed trying to fight someone better than me.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Dream?” George demanded. “You? Die in a fight to someone ‘better than you’? Literally  _ who _ could possibly manage that sort of skill gap? You’re insanely good at fighting.”

“As a human,” Dream insisted.

Grian cut in, “It’s your choice, ultimately. I’d prefer it if you remained a Watcher for the time being, though; I may need someone to subdue the Tubbo kid if he’s already been turned.”

Wilbur felt sick at the idea. “Every moment we waste is one more moment Tubbo’s not back home with us. Let’s get this over with already.”

As a unit, the team nodded, and began building their bridges toward the final fight.

* * *

He was so cold. It wasn’t too terribly warm in the End’s Farlands to begin with, but that normal cold didn’t even begin to measure up. It wasn’t the frost of his breath; it was the ice on his eyelashes from tears he’d wasted, it was the numbing slurry where his thoughts were supposed to be.

He winced at each explosion--! He cried out in pain, as a fire charge came too close.

“Watch it, dickhead, you almost hit Tubbo!” someone yelled. Tommy. Even hearing him was physically painful. Tubbo wrenched his eyes toward the main fight.

The Watcher who'd taken him-- Sir, he called them, in lieu of a given name-- was quite frankly getting the shit kicked out of them by another Watcher. Arrows burned through the air, flying from bows held by bridging humans and plunging themselves into Sir. Every time Sir tried to attack anyone but the obviously more powerful Watcher that was tearing Sir apart, a smaller Watcher played defense for the humans. Tubbo's brain whispered to him that the Watcher on defense must be a juvenile, and Sir’s opponent--

Oh no.

_ The Wynncraft Watcher.  _ Sir had no chance! Every inch of his being screamed at him to go help, to defend his master, but some deeply buried shred of traitorousness held him in place, bolstered every time Tommy yelled his name.

_ “Tubbo, attack!” _ Sir screeched.

Everything slowed to a halt. The humans tensed, and Wilbur screamed for him not to, but--

_ “I won't do it,” Tubbo protested, trying and failing to attack the viscous void-person. “I won't! You can't make me!” _

_ Looming over him, the void-person made a noise like old knives scraping metal. _

**_“You will.”_ **

\--but Tubbo remembered all too well what happened last time he was disobedient.

Manifesting a console (and oh, didn't it sting that he was so weak he needed a console to do this) his fingers stumbled over the gamemode command. With a sickening, invigorating rush of infinite items at his disposal, he floated into the air, higher and higher, and threw himself at the juvenile Watcher. 

He was unsteady above the void, flying and falling suddenly, but the other Watcher? They kept cussing in Dream's voice, overlaid with the timbre of the void, pleading with him not to fight. It should have been harder to fight Dream, Tubbo thought. It disturbed him.

From beneath the two, Tommy shouted from his bridge. “Please, Tubbo! Stop fighting! It doesn't matter whether you're a Watcher or a human, because you're still my friend!”

Tubbo faltered and Dream seized the opportunity to press his advantage. Unsettled, it was all Tubbo could do to defend. His head hurt so bad. He felt like his skull was splitting in two.

Sir thrashed in the Wynncraft Watcher’s grasp, Tommy was crying, and Tubbo’s breath hitched. Creative mode wrenched itself from his grasp and he plummeted.

  
  
  


Tommy dove toward the edge of his bridge, catching Tubbo's arm before Tubbo fell into the void forever.

“Let me go,” Tubbo cried out.

Pain twisted Tommy's face. “No. I may not remember much, but I know like I know the back of my own hand that you are my friend.”

With Wilbur’s help, the two managed to pull Tubbo up onto the bridge. Wilbur held the two close like a lifeline, breathing shakily.

“You’re okay,” Wilbur whispered.

Tubbo’s heart ached. “Give me your crossbow.”

Wilbur hesitated, and Tommy frowned. Still, Tubbo was able to gently pry the weapon from Wilbur’s fingers. Loading it, Tubbo took aim. Breathed in. Breathed out. Fired.

The arrow soared across the emptiness between the bridge and the island, phasing harmlessly through Sir. The Wynncraft Watcher backed away.

Wilbur and Tommy both made to question Tubbo, but the breath was stolen from their lungs as the End crystal on an obsidian tower behind the Watchers exploded. Tubbo watched grimly as Sir let out an unhinged death rattle, before dissipating into nothingness.

“It’s done,” Tubbo heard himself say, “We’re… free.”

Finally, he allowed himself to sob freely, grieving his master while wishing Sir had a corpse for him to spit on. Cheers resounded all around them as Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo clung to each other as though one of them was going to disappear. Tubbo smiled for the first time in what felt like ages.

“Hey,” he said, “let’s go home.”


End file.
